The Herald has today taken up the exciting opportunity of fostering a fluffy robot.

Why, you may ask yourselves? Well there is a powerful message behind the process, aiming to encourage people across the city to foster children who need a home and a loving family.

Radiant Art Gallery is currently holding an innovative art exhibition which has left such a profound effect on those who have visited that some have come away wanting to change the lives of children across the city.

Radiant art gallery in Derry's Cross, is home to 50 robots which represent the personality traits of the city's children in a bid to raise awareness of the need for more foster care families in Plymouth.

The Effervescent team within the gallery hope that their exhibition will encourage ten new applications for fostering in the ten weeks that the show runs for.

Reporter Charlotte Gosling fostering a fluffy robot

And in a fun way of expressing the serious issue, the gallery are offering fostering placements for their furry robots out to visitors who attend the show.

'I Am Not A Robot' was devised, developed and designed by children and young people in foster care in the city. And in just four days of its opening, already led to one new application for fostering.

The immersive show wants to take the message out into the community by encouraging the people of Plymouth to try caring for their very own robot for a week - in an artistic representation of what it might be like to devote your life to a child.

Eloise Malone, CEO and creative director of Effervescent, said: "It's an invitation to the public to try out being a foster carer on some tiny, interactive robots first and then maybe consider how that works for their family and then go on to be a real foster carer."

I Am Not A Robot exhibition

Nationally, 9,070 new foster families are needed in the next 12 months to care for a range of children, the greatest need being for older children, sibling groups, disabled children and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

The young people involved want audiences to know that children who need foster care placements are all individuals with different stories, hopes, dreams and needs and so it is important that there are enough potential carers in the system for them to be provided with the best match.

This way they can flourish and grow to their full potential.

Each robot will sing and dance for visitors who pay them the attention and give them the love they crave.

Those who foster a fluffy robot are encouraged to sign a promise form stating that they will give them all the love and care they desire, take them to places they want to see and carry out their hobbies with them.

The pair collaborated with young people in the area who have been fostered

Foster carers are then to take photographs of the places they take their robots and of any activities they enjoy to spread the word on social media.

This can be done using the hashtag #iamnotarobot

To make an application to foster a fluffy robot for a week, visit the exhibition before it closes on Saturday, November 25.